Underwood to star in new ‘Sound of Music’ broadcast

Led Zeppelin will reunite for ‘Letterman’ interview

LOS ANGELES, Dec 1, (Agencies): Country singer Carrie Underwood will perform “My Favorite Things” and other tunes from the musical “The Sound of Music” when she portrays Maria von Trapp in a live broadcast of the perennial favorite, NBC television said on Friday.

In a production to be aired late next year, the five-time Grammy winner will star as the rebellious would-be nun who married Austrian Naval commander Georg von Trapp and fled the Nazis with him and his children. NBC did not say where the musical would be staged.

Julie Andrews immortalized the character of Maria in the 1965 Oscarwinning film that was based on the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1959. Both were based on the true story of the von Trapp family.

The musical was inspired by the 1956 German film “The Trapp Family” and its 1958 sequel, “The Trapp Family in America.”

“Speaking for everyone at NBC, we couldn’t be happier to have the gifted Carrie Underwood take up the mantle of the great Maria von Trapp,” Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, said in a statement. “She was an iconic woman who will now be played by an iconic artist.”

The musical’s famous songs include “Do-Re-Mi”, “Edelweiss”, and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”.

The productions were based on Maria von Trapp’s 1949 memoir, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” which recounts the family’s performing years, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria and their immigration to the United States. Maria died in 1987.

NBC’s broadcast will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced the network’s musical drama “Smash.”

Underwood rose to fame after winning Fox network’s musical talent contest “American Idol” in 2005. She made her film debut in 2011’s “Soul Surfer”. Some 15 million of her albums have been sold and her 2005 debut, “Some Hearts”, was voted the top country album of the past decade by Billboard.

“Under the Dome” has landed under the wing of CBS.

The network has given a 13-episode, straight-to-series order for the project, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name.

The series will premiere in summer 2013.

King will executive-produce, along with Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Television will produce the series in association with CBS Television Studios. Neal Baer, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Stacey Snider and Brian K. Vaughan are also executiveproducing. Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) will direct the first episode.

The series will revolve around a small New England town that is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome. The town’s inhabitants must deal with surviving the post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers to what this barrier is, where it came from and if and when it will go away.

“This is a great novel coming to the television screen with outstanding auspices and in-season production values to create a summer programming event,” CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said. “We’re excited to transport audiences ‘Under the Dome’ and into the extraordinary world that Stephen King has imagined.”

Showtime, which is owned by CBS, had previously been developing the project.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin will make a rare appearance together on “Late Show With David Letterman” on Dec 3, CBS said Friday.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones will drop in on the late-night show for an interview — which isn’t quite the reunion that Zep fans have been patiently waiting for, but it might have to do. With the exception of a oneoff tribute concert for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun at London’s O2 Arena in 2007 — which was released as the DVD “Celebration Day” in October — Jones has largely been estranged from Page and Plant since the group’s 1980 breakup following drummer John Bonham’s death.

The “Late Show” appearance won’t be the only time that Letterman hangs out with the rock legends — the group, along with Letterman, will be lauded at the 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC, which will take place Dec 2 and air Dec 26 on CBS.

NBC will premiere its new drama “Do No Harm” at 10 pm on Jan 31, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said Friday.

The premiere date takes advantage of the one-hour series finale of “30 Rock”, which will air at 8 pm on that same night.

“Do No Harm” stars “Rescue Me” alum Steven Pasquale as Dr Jason Cole, a neurosurgeon whose life is going swimmingly until his dangerous alter-ego emerges, hell-bent on creating havoc on Cole and those around him.

“Jan 31 will be a special night as one classic series will mark its finale with a great hour-long send-off episode while a promising new drama will make its debut on Thursdays,” Greenblatt said. “‘30 Rock’ is acclaimed as a legendary comedy and we will see a truly memorable and fitting last episode. In ‘Do No Harm,’ viewers will have a unique new dramatic storyline with an exciting new star in Steven Pasquale that takes them into dark and uncharted territory.”

To accommodate “Do No Harm”, “Rock Center With Brian Williams” will move to Fridays at 10 pm, following “Dateline”, beginning Feb 8.